In a world with an intellectual history of seven thousand years behind it, where do Pakistanis stand, what are they doing, what do they aspire to be, and what ought they to be doing? This Blog takes Notes of all of that ...

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Note: I sent this piece of writing to all the newspapers one by one; none bothered to see it or use it, that I am justified to conclude!

Why taxes are not a political issue in Pakistan?

All the politics is about collecting and spending taxes; but
unfortunately that reality does not translate into political issues in Pakistan.

What it translates into is power-politics pure and simple!
See the arrogant issueless politics of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf; see the pseudo-development
politics of Pakistan Muslim League (N); see the outdated Roti-Kapra-Makaan
politics of Pakistan Peoples Party (P); see the identity-less politics of Awami
National Party; and also see the self-centered religious politics of Jamat-e-Islami,
Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (F). At the end of the day, all of their politics is
about seeking power and state-benefits; or it is politicking on pseudo-issues
ranging from anti-Americanism and pro-Palestine rallies to this or that religious
or sectarian wrangling.

The political parties of Pakistan never ever take up any
issue which directly concerns the ordinary citizens; such as the cruel
state-machinery; deplorable conditions of social services; police brutalities;
unavailability of prompt justice; protection of life and property, and most
importantly taxes. For the last 68 years, these parties are constantly trying
to protect “democracy,” which in fact is in danger by the very politics of the
same political parties. And this “democracy” has delivered nothing to the
people, but the crumbs.

Likewise, no political party minds the imposition of a new
tax or an increase in an already existing tax; since they would be following
the same practice while in the government. Probably for the same reason, no
political party makes an issue of the taxes imposed, taxes increased or
unjustified taxation. They may be objecting and debating it, now and then, in
the national or provincial assemblies and resorting to a cosmetic walk-out or a
boycott; however, they would never make it a political issue and educate their
voters. Are they not the representatives of the people, who are required to
take care of their interests? Or they are not the true representatives of the
people!

For instance, take the case of Withholding Tax (0.3 % and
0.6 %) levied in this year’s budget. It got through the parliament smoothly;
the opposition, a very active for that matter, having taken no notice of it. Only
the middle-level traders, who are an organized community, and whom this tax
affects directly, have come out against it. The other sections of society,
which are not organized, such as pensioners, widows, ordinary savers, National
Savings’ customers, it seems have no voice. It is in this context that question
arises on the legitimacy of the role of the representatives sitting in the
parliament. One must ask: Whose interests they are supposed to protect? And, whose
interests they are protecting?

Crueler than this Withholding Tax, there is another
arbitrary and unjust tax imposed years back on cash withdrawals from banks. Without
any justification and starkly against the principles of taxation, it too
penalizes those who use banking channels. Ironically, this tax also defies its
purpose, i.e. promoting of banking channels and thus formal economy.

Isn’t is surprising and at the same time instructive that no
parliamentarian and no politician or no political party took up the case of
Withholding Tax on cash withdrawals and spoke against it let alone making it a
political issue! Also, no court bothered to take “suo motto” notice of it. The
same is happening as far as the Withholding Tax on all the banking instruments
is concerned. No political party is ready to make it a political issue. They
announced their support for the traders and sympathized with their cause; but
that’s part of their power-politics!

As is the case, all the taxes ultimately trickle down to the
end-consumers. Is it the reason no political party make them a political issue
in which case they are not the true representatives of the people. But for the
same reason, all the political parties must make the taxes a political issue in
which case they may come to truly represent the people. Are the political
parties of Pakistan are ready to play role of the true representatives of the
people? Or they are there to vouch for their own special Ashraafi interests? Then
the people must not vote them in power!

Friday, October 9, 2015

Note: This article was completed on December 31st, 2014, and was originally posted on this Blog in January 2015.

Presently
there is happening quite a serious debate on the 20 points envisaged in the
National Action Plan. Its thrust is on two points:

i) All these measures should
have been in their place since long as a matter of routine, probably from the
day first when Pakistan came to exist; and,

ii) Due to the past negligence of
the governments, doubts and questions are being raised about the efficacy of
these measures.

The argument the present writer aims to make is a bit
different; he wants to propose a 21st point to be added to the NAP,
which focuses on overhauling the state. Let’s be precise in judging: It’s the
state that played havoc with the society of Pakistan, and now it needs to be back
to the basics!

First
and foremost: The politicians of Pakistan should stop behaving like Haakim and
Ashraaf; they are empowered by the vote of people and are bound to act in
accordance with the provisions of the constitution; they are the same citizens
albeit with certain responsibilities and duties with which strings of
accountability are attached.

The
citizens of Pakistan while they participated in the Lawyers’ Movement learnt about:
Constitutionalism; Rule of Law; Fundamental Rights; Independence of Judiciary:
these must materialize into reality. That amounts to minimizing the role of the
politicians which they exert on the society and market through various
instruments of the state and government; and that will strengthen and enhance
the civil society and its role in the life of the citizens.

There
are two domains wherein an urgent overhaul is required: Political and Economic.
In the political domain, following practical measures are needed:

i) The role
of the state be redefined as a protector of the citizens life, property and
their freedoms and not as an institution of welfare, and not as a proprietor of
Business;

ii) Constitutionalism should be the only way to run the affairs of
the state;

iii) Top priority be given to the protection of all the citizens’
life, property and their fundamental rights; especially the right to religious
freedom be ensured to every citizens whatever his/her faith is;

iv) Institutions
and agencies responsible to dispense justice and extend protection to the
citizens, such as Police, Courts, be made autonomous and accountable to the
parliament or the provincial assemblies as the case may be;

v) Civilian
authority be retrieved and restored both in letter and spirit; formulation of
defense and foreign policies constitutionally rests with the elected government
and parliament, these should go back to them; as in accord with the
constitution the Army has nothing to do with any other matters save related to
its professional duties, it must confine itself to the role assigned by the
constitution; also not only the Army but all the intelligence agencies be made
accountable to the parliament;

vi) Any interference in the matters of the state
and its institutions whether it comes from the political or military quarters
be not heeded to in the least and violators be brought to the book;

vii) Judiciary
be completely made independent financially and in matters of its appointments especially;

viii) All the institutions of the state, such as Election Commission, National
Accountability Bureau, be made autonomous absolutely impervious to any external
influence;

ix) In the matters of Army’s and Bureaucracy’s appointments,
posting, transfers, promotions, Prime Minister’s, or any minister’s prerogatives
be done away with, and the principle of merit and seniority strictly be
followed;

x) All the legislation regarding the citizens’ right to information
be it at the federal or provincial level is a farce; in fact all the
information regarding the affairs of the state and government belongs to the
citizens; why should they pay and be asking for it; so it be posted on the
respective websites for their examination;

xi) The role of all the elected
representatives be confined to the matters of legislation and they should enjoy
no other status or powers; no funds, be it for development or for any other
purpose, be given to them;

xii) Foreign visits of state and government
officials be drastically curtailed; no visit be allowed without prior budget
sanction;

xiii) It be legislated that only professional politicians could
contest and become elected representatives, and no one doing or having any
business interests could join politics and government.

In
the domain of Pakistan’s economy, following radical reforms need to be
introduced: First and foremost: The state must come back to its original
protective function and focus on its regulatory and facilitatory role and be doing
no business at all.

i) All the lands gifted/allotted by the British to anyone be
taken back and distributed to landless peasants and homeless citizens under a
uniform policy;

ii) All the monetary privileges and tax exemptions be abolished;

iii) All the discretionary powers, discretionary or secret funds be stopped;

iv) All the state enterprises be privatized be they incur profit or loss;

v) As
growth is a function of citizens’ entrepreneurial efforts, and state or
government creates not a single penny of wealth, this be adopted as a guiding
principle while formulating any economic policies;

vi) As in its role of a
taxman, the state by heavily taxing can hamper the economic growth, so it must
commit itself to the principle of lower and flat rate taxes;

vii) As a
regulator, the state should commit itself to the principle of regulation for
facilitation, not for control;

viii) All the restrictions on domestic or
international trade be lifted; it’s for the producers/traders to see and decide
where to export to and where to import from;

ix) In the spirit of a slim, smart
and strong state, unnecessary ministries, departments, etc. be downsized or done
away with altogether;

x) As the state machinery, i.e. departments of the state
which collect tax or render various services, such as permissions, licenses,
has become an enemy of the people, a complete overhaul of it is long due; with
an iron hand it be made citizen-friendly;

xi) All the accounts of the state be
posted on the respective websites and even a single penny be accounted for,
i.e. political and economic parasitism must come to an end.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Note: I completed this article on December 9, 2014, and wrote: "(Government) ought not to be afraid of martial law
the prospects of which are zero presently, rather minus." Now merely 9 months later the prospects of martial law have grown formidably positive; so what's the game, politically speaking, let's try to see:

What's the game, politically speaking?

In
democracy, only a majority party is allowed to rule, and it may turn out to be
a tyranny; no smaller party alone can lay a claim to that privilege. That’s the
advantage of democracy one can cite while arguing with its enemies. Pakistan and
other countries like it are an exception. In such countries, parties of every
size can unleash a rule of tyranny under the banner of populism. Thus all the
gatherings and processions of every size which such parties hold are quoted as
a referendum against the government. Both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) have been quite vocal in delegitimizing the
government after each Jalsaa of theirs; thus PTI’s Faisalabad “lockdown” of
December 8 in their wisdom has already unseated the government.

That’s
because in countries like Pakistan the states have transformed themselves into
Jelly States. Years back, a Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987) denoted
them as Soft States; he meant to say: They have rules and laws and various
agencies to implement them but they do not do so, and that makes them Soft. He
termed them as ridden ‘by deficiencies in legislation and, in particular, law
observance and enforcement, a widespread disobedience by public officials and,
often, their collusion with powerful persons and groups ... whose conduct they
should regulate.’ Since then that quality of Softness of states has further
deteriorated; it appears that quality has now acquired the characteristics of
Jelly, a shapeless thing which fits in with any shape under any type of
pressure. That’s how Pakistani state looks like now!

On
the one hand a group of just a few hundred or thousand men armed with sticks can
paralyze the Pakistani state; that has already happened this August in
Islamabad; that happened in Faisalabad too, and is destined to happen in other
cities; and on the other hand, though the present government is all determined
to try a military general for allegedly committing High Treason but is facing
formidable hurdles at every step; all that testifies that the Pakistani state is
but helpless in establishing its writ in every domain. Here it doesn’t matter
whether it has got the will to establish its writ or not, because there is no
way to know but through its own efforts which it may put in establishing its
writ and with the help of which it may be ascertained that it is intent upon
establishing its writ.

Let’s
pick out three areas to see are there any efforts being made on the part of the
state to establish its writ. First is Taliban, who openly challenge the state
and want to capture it through an armed struggle. The state completely failed
on this count; for many years it let thousands of innocent citizens to be
killed by these fanatic warriors and remained mired in its own policy of appeasing
them and their supporter groups and parties. Now there is an operation going
on, whose range and scope is still not clear. The second area relates to
politics. A number of religious and political groups and parties openly
challenge the state just like Taliban; they rather blatantly indulge in
unlawful rhetoric and behavior so often that makes one wonders are they above
the law of the land. Not only are parties like PAT and PTI part of this club of
privileged politicians, there are a number of groups and parties which use
religion to further their political aims and objectives and though their social
base may not be more than a few thousand supporters but they and their leaders
work like mafias using arms and fascistic ploys and whenever they want they
paralyze the whole cities, and the state seems totally helpless!

As
has already been mentioned the third area is where the present government,
which is at the moment in command of the state of Pakistan, is trying its
hardest to bring a usurper general to book; that the Pakistan Muslim League
(N)’s government is doing that in the face of fatal odds is no secret now. And
the do-and-die and destabilizing politics of PTI needs to be explained in that
context also.

In
view of the above, one lesson, which every political analyst and politician be
he in the government or outside of it needs to learn, is that political actions
are not judged by the intentions of their actors, i.e. political parties and
leaders, but by their impact and consequences. That’s the first and in a sense
last tool of any political analysis; because in its absence no political action
may be understood in terms of its impact. As for the intentions of anybody, one
can never be sure of; and of course, when a murder occurs, it’s a murder only,
though the circumstances are taken into account which prompted that murder;
however, the fact of that murder is never disputed, which is a consequence of
the circumstances. For instance there may develop a consensus what impact the
PAT and PTI politics during this August-October and PTI’s present politics is
having on various things including the state and its writ, but never on their
intentions.

Unfortunately,
from those who are at the helm of affairs of the state and the politicians to
those who form the circles of opinion and political following no one is serious
in taking into consideration how the present politics of PTI is weakening not
only the writ of the state but state itself. Hence, it is this third area of
politics where the present government which manifests the state of Pakistan at
the moment must establish its writ. It ought not to be afraid of martial law
the prospects of which are zero presently, rather minus. It ought to bring the
state of Pakistan into the shape which the provisions of its constitution endow
it with. It ought not to allow the society of Pakistan slide into a chaos which
may result in a civil war. It’s time the state of Pakistan must act to
establish its writ in the political domain where it is required to be
established first!

The Blogger

The blogger cherishes a cosmopolitan spirit; he is a moralist; a rationalist; a philosopher; a political philosopher; he believes in Classical Liberalism, as a Theory of Conduct.
He has substantially contributed to the founding of the first free market think tank of Pakistan, Alternate Solutions Institute.
He is a writer who wrote / published dozens of articles on a variety of issues, and is author of 4 books.
He wrote / published short-stories in Punjabi, a regional language of Pakistan.
He composes poetry both in Urdu and Punjabi, and has already published one collection.